The Marauder's Tale: The Beginning Before the Start
by Kittykatrosetta
Summary: The school stories of James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Severus Snape, and Lilly Potter. All comments and reviews are highly encouraged! I really hope you enjoy! - Katerina Rose
1. Prologue: It all begins

**The Begining Before the Start**

The Marauder's Tale

"Are you sure you have everything, dear?" Mrs. Potter asked, squeezing her husband's hand and glancing worriedly at her son. "Robes? Wand? Socks? It gets cold in the winter, you know, colder than we're used to, and-"

"Yes mum, I'm sure I've got it all," James said hastily. "Of course I know it gets cold in winter. I'm not five. Stop worrying, I'll be fine!" He flourished his wand proudly to emphasize his point. An unexpected spark flew out of the end, rocketing towards the cat carrier atop his trunk and pushing it over. His cat, Graceling, yoweled, his mother muffled a shriek from behind her hands, and his father merely stood there, a mischievous twinkle in his eye and amusement scribbled across his handsome face.

"Oh golly, sorry, Mum." James lunged to grab the carrier and replaced it atop his trunk.

"You can't just go waving that around all over the place!" Mrs. Potter scowled, grabbing the wand firmly from James's hand. "You'll poke someone's eye out! You'll poke your _own_ eye out! You'll _blast _your own eye!"

"Oh, lighten up, dear," Mr. Potter said. "He's just a boy."

"Yes, well, a boy can easily get himself into quite a load of trouble."

"Believe me, you don't need to tell _me_ that." Mr. Potter gave James a wink.

James carefully ignored him, and flashed his mother a brilliant grin. "I'll be more careful Mum."

"Please do," she said exasperatedly, though she handed James back his wand nonetheless.

They all stood awkwardly for a few moments, each looking at the others and knowing this was goodbye. Mrs. Potter was obviously a wreck, a few tears escaping as she fussed over her only child. James didn't hold it against her. Mr. Potter, however, appeared calmly normal. He kept sneaking James a wink when his mother slipped into one of her "you had better behave" or "don't get into any trouble" lectures, which she was doing quite often. She seemed to be trying to fit in as many as she could before James boarded the Hogwarts Express.

James was experiencing a storm of anxiety. He fidgeted anxiously as his mother patted his scarf. What if he wasn't Sorted into Gryffindor? Worse, what if he was put in Slytherin? His Gryffindor parents would accept it, but they'd be disappointed. Mrs. Potter often told him how great red looked on him, and how awful green did. What if his roommates turned out to be awful gits? What if he was terrible at his lessons? What if all the girls thought he was a swine? He pushed away his mother's hand. That would never happen. He had never had trouble making friends before, and was determined not to start now.

Mrs. Potter began fussing with his perpetually messy hair while James's brown eyes roamed the 9 3/4 Hogwarts Express platform. There were a few familiar faces, but whenever he spotted someone he knew, the ocean of strange witches and wizards quickly swallowed them again. A young, dark-haired wizard standing a few feet away caught his eye. The two boys made eye contact, and James was suddenly very self-conscious of his mother trying to flatten his hair with her spit.

"Ew, mum! Stop it!" he said, swatting her hand away. He glanced at the boy. The boy's dark hair was similar to James's, but longer and cut to suit his sharp angles. The boy smirked, nodded his head, and looked away.

"What is it with you Potter boys, and your unmanageable hair!" Mrs. Potter turned to her husband with an exasperated look on her face. "I swear, his is just like yours, dear. And I'm told your father's looked just like that, too, as a boy!"

Mr. Potter snuck James yet another wink. "It runs in the family, I guess."

While his mother was distracted, James quietly snuck away to the black-haired boy. If the two had already acknowledged each other's existence, they might as well introduce themselves. James held out his hand and gave the other wizard a mischievous smile. "How ya doin'? Name's James! James Potter."

The boy took his hand eagerly. "Sirius Black," he said. "Yeah, I know, it's an odd name."

"No, I think it's cool, actually," James said, dropping his fake accent. "I mean, as long as you're not actually a serious person." Sirius didn't say anything in response, but James liked the look in his eyes. "Say, where're your parents?"

The smile in Sirius's eyes immediately vanished. He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder, pointing to four rather tall adults standing not too far off. They were obviously two couples, and all shared a resemblance to Sirius, as well as to each other. A small boy who looked very like Sirius stood awkwardly by his mother's side. "The two on the right are my mum and dad," Sirius said. "The other two are my aunt and uncle. They have a kid in Hogwarts, too."

"You have any siblings?" James asked, not finding much interesting about Sirius's parents.

"Yeah. A little brother. He's the boy standing next to them. You?"

"Nah, only child."

Sirius smirked. "You look it, too."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nah, nothing," Sirius said quickly. "Just that by the looks of your mom spitting on your hair, you seem quite pampered in her hands."

At this, James laughed. "Kind of reminds you of a monkey, huh?" He took a closer look at Sirius's appearance, and felt a little guilty. Sirius was nicely dressed, in a fine satin black shirt and matching blank pants, but his shock of straggly black hair was a mess and his shirt was untucked. For the past five minutes of their conversation, his parents had hardly glanced at him. He didn't seem like a pampered boy, or even one whose parents paid much attention to him at all. That didn't make sense- what parents wouldn't care for their eleven-year-old child?

"Hey, what year're you?"

"First. You?"

"I'm in third year," James lied, then puffed out his chest and stuck his nose in the air. "I know all about Hogwarts."

Sirius didn't look convinced. "Third year, huh? What's your house?" he asked, smirking.

"Oh, I'm so special, they made up an entire new house for me," James said. "It's called Dragendorf. My animal is a Horntail dragon, and the colors are white and black. It knocks all the other houses on their butts."

"Yeah, well, I'm a Mudblood," Sirius said. He was smiling now as he played along. He nodded in his parents' direction. "They're just pretending to be wizards. You should have seen them go through the wall."

"If you're a Mudblood, then I'm a Squib," James said. "I only got here by accident."

Both boys continued bantering, each coming up with lies more ridiculous than the ones before. It wasn't until Sirius was trying to convince James that he was a boggart who was tired of scaring people and looking for a job at Zonko's Joke shop that the train whistle blew, signaling five minutes before departure.

James turned back to say something to Sirius, but before he could, Mrs. Potter rammed into him and trapped him in an embrace.

"Oh! James! I'm going to miss you so much," she said, amid an attack of kisses on his head.

James felt heat rise to his cheeks as he tried to wriggle free. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sirius suppress a howl of laughter.

"Hey, I'm going to board. Should I grab a compartment?" Sirius asked, looking unsure if James would want to sit with him or not. "I want to hear more about Dragendorf."

James beamed, half because he meant it, and half because he wanted Sirius to feel comfortable. "Yeah, go ahead. I'll catch up in a minute."

As Sirius smirked and bounded up the train, wheeling his cart with one hand and holding an owl cage in the other, James noticed that the closest he got to his parents was a quick wave from the door of the train. He was kept busy enough by his mother's farewells that by the time he escaped, Sirius's parents had already turned to leave and people were beginning to stare at his mother. "Ow! Mum! Let off!"


	2. Chapter 1: The Boggart and the Squib

Chapter One

The Bogart and the Squib

"How can they all be full already?!" James cried out as he strode down the Hogwarts Express corridor with Sirius at his heels. "I mean, it's been five minutes, at most!"

The two continued, peering into each compartment and sagging a little when they saw each was full. The few they came across that had space for them were already partially occupied by boring-looking older students. Finally, at almost the back of the train, they reached a compartment with no one but a small girl around their age. She was staring out the window with her back towards them, so the boys saw only her long red hair.

"This seems like our best bet," James said, looking questioningly at Sirius. Sirius shrugged, and taking that as an answer, James knocked on the door and pushed it aside. "Hi. Can we sit here? Everywhere else is taken."

The girl turned around. James thought she was mildly pretty, for a girl her age anyways. She had striking green eyes, but they were puffy and red-rimmed, though there were no tears on her cheeks. "Whatever," she muttered, glancing at the two of them before turning back to the window.

James faltered at her unfriendly response, but Sirius walked straight in and sprawled across two seats after shoving his trunk onto a shelf. James hesitantly followed, placing his trunk beside Sirius's and taking a seat across from him. He wasn't sure what to say. "Um...You alright?"

"Fine," the girl said, rather harshly, and showed no interest in explaining herself.

James looked at Sirius, who shrugged again. "So, what's your symbol?" Sirius asked him.

"Symbol…?" James said, confused.

"Dragendorf's sign, obviously! I mean, you made it sound pretty awesome," Sirius said, smiling.

"Oh! Right! Well, the animal is a dragon, so I figured, well, you know, a dragon."

"That's not very creative," Sirius said. He squinted his dark eyes as if in thought, then jumped out of his seat. "Oh! Here we go," he reached for his trunk on tiptoe and a few moments later pulled out a book and quill and sat back down.

"What's that? Let me see," James said, craning from his seat over the book cover, so that he was looking at its pages upside down. There were no words or letters or anything- instead, on each page was a different drawing or sketch. "You like to draw?" James asked incredulously, sitting back down.

"Maybe I do!" Sirius said defensively.

"What? No, I didn't mean it like that," James said quickly. "Just, I didn't peg you for an artistic type."

Sirius turned to an empty page and began to scribble his quill. "There's not much else to do around my house," he muttered. "Sometimes my mum has Kreacher hang them up on the walls, but most of the time she tells me to do something useful with my time."

"Kreacher?" James asked, over the scratching of Sirius's quill.

"Oh, yea, he's our house elf. Nasty little thing he is, always muttering under his breath and all. He doesn't like me much." Sirius didn't look up from his sketch book. "Says I give him too much trouble."

James laughed. He couldn't think of anything else to say, so he stared out the window.

Around five minutes later Sirius looked up from his sketch book. "Done. Take a look," he said, handing it over to James.

James took it and looked at the page. It was a hasty drawing of a white dragon, wings stretched and head pointed upwards midroar. It was surrounded by a pool of black, like a nighttime sky. Every few seconds, the wings rippled forward or backward, and a burst of white flame billowed from the dragon's mouth. It wasn't very detailed, but James thought it was the coolest thing ever.

"Wow! That's awesome!" James turned the book upside-down to see the picture from all angles.

"Yea?" Sirius said blandly, as if he knew it was spectacular but didn't want to brag. "Thanks."

"Oh yea, totally good enough to win yourself a spot in the house."

"Oh, so the Sorting hat doesn't decide if you're good enough, then?" Sirius asked sarcastically.

"Nah, I'm the Sorting hat for the Dragendorf House. And the founder. _And_ the captain!"

"So then what am I?" Sirius asked.

James thought about it, but before he could answer, the compartment door opened. A lanky, dark haired boy with an oddly sharp nose, already in his school robes, walked in, his eyes on the red haired girl James had completely forgotten about. The boy sat down across from her, pushing past James and Sirius as if he didn't even notice them.

The girl looked up at him, then turned back to the window. "I don't want to talk to you."

James and Sirius looked at each other awkwardly, though they didn't say anything.

"Why not?" The dark haired boy asked.

"Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore," The girl said. James knew who that was- Dumbledore was headmaster of Hogwarts. The best headmaster in a thousand years, everyone said.

"So what?" The boy asked.

"So she's my sister!" The girl turned around and shot him a terrifying glare. James was glad it was for that boy, and not him.

"She's only a-" The boy stopped suddenly, perhaps recalculating what he should say. After a moment, he changed tactics. "But we're going!" He smiled brightly. "This is it! We're off to Hogwarts!" At this, the girl seemed to lighten up. She actually gave him a small smile. "You'd better be in Slytherin," the boy said.

James jerked his head up at the word. "Slytherin?" he said, incredulous that anyone would want to be in that house. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" He asked Sirius, expecting him to laugh in agreement.

But Sirius didn't laugh- in fact, his blank face twisted into a grim expression. "My whole family have been in Slytherin," he said.

James stared in surprise. He'd never have thought fun, friendly Sirius was anything like the slimy scum he'd been told were Slytherin. "Blimey," he said, "and I thought you seemed alright."

Sirius smiled slightly. "Maybe I'll break the tradition." It didn't seem to James like Sirius wanted to be in Slytherin, let alone that he fit there. That was a reassuring thought; he liked Sirius, but there was no way he'd be friends with a Slytherin. "Where are you heading, if you got the choice?" Sirius asked.

James beamed. "'Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!"' he quoted, "Like my dad!"

The boy with the pointy nose grunted. James turned to glare at him. "Got a problem with that?"

"No," he said obnoxiously. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy-"

"Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" Sirius interrupted, and James howled with laughter. There was no doubt now, James definitely liked Sirius, potential Slytherin or not.

The red haired girl sat up quickly then, her face red and her green eyes glaring at James and Sirius. "Come on, Severus, let's find another compartment."

James scoffed. There was no way they'd find an empty compartment, not with the train as crowded as it was. What did they want another compartment for, anyway? He and Sirius looked at Severus and the girl and wiggled their eyebrows. "Oooooo…"

Severus and the girl hurried away from the compartment, James calling out from behind them "See ya, Snivellus!"

When the door shut, Sirius and James burst out laughing.

"What an ugly kid," James said, when their laughter had subsided.

Sirius smirked. "Yea, he was kind of a prat."

"Yeah… aren't all Slytherins?" Suddenly James remembered what Sirius had said before. "Do you… if you had the choice, would you choose Slytherin?"

Sirius thought a moment. "I don't know, really. When I said my family were all Slytherins, I meant my _entire_ family. Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncle, even my cousins. The Black family is notorious for being exclusive Slytherins."

"But you?" James asked. "What do you want?

Sirius shrugged. "I wouldn't be surprised if I was put in Slytherin because of my family, but I wouldn't really be surprise at anywhere else either, even Gryffindor. My family would hate that. Might be worth it just to see their faces." Sirius paused, thinking. "Actually, I could see myself as a Ravenclaw… I mean, I'm pretty smart, but you know how the Sorting works, right?"

James nodded. "The hat thing decides where you would fit best based on your personality."

"Well, yea, but also based on what's most important to you. Like, I'm smart enough to be in Ravenclaw, but I don't really care about good grades or knowledge so I probably won't end up there. You get what I'm saying?"

James nodded again. "Yea, so you might be really brave, but if you're more ambitious than brave, then you'll be placed in Slytherin."

"Yea."

"Well, I hope you're in Gryffindor with me," James said. He wanted to be friends. They'd make a great team. He'd never say that out loud, but he thought Sirius probably knew what he meant anyway.

"Yea, that would be great," Sirius said, half smiling. He stared out the window as trees and indistinguishable bushes zipped past. "I wasn't expecting to like anyone, to tell you the truth."

James wasn't sure what to say to that. He looked around for something to say, and his eyes fell on Sirius's notebook. "Can I look at it?"

Sirius nodded. "Yea, go ahead, but don't laugh at any of it. I hate it when people laugh at my drawings." Sirius handed him the book.

"I'll only laugh if it's really funny," James said, smiling at Sirius as he flipped through the pages. "Say, these are pretty good, you know. I just draw stick figures." James reached a sketch of a beautiful stag. Its antlers jabbed at the sky like sharp prongs, and its front leg was pawing the ground menacingly. Like most of the sketches, the picture was dark and ominous, but James still thought it was pretty cool. "Hey, I really like this one."

Sirius looked over. "Oh yea, I have a few more of those also. I love deer, they might be my favorite animals. Especially male ones, with their antlers."

James considered the picture for a moment. "You know, I never gave them much thought before."

"Too busy with dragons?"

"Yea," James said guiltily. "I always wanted to see one in real life."

"You'll be fried in seconds," Sirius smirked.

"Not if I take precautions! My dad tells me there are wizards whose whole jobs are working with dragons."

"I bet you'd taste good to them, too. Nothing's more satisfying than a squib's flesh."

"...Squib?" James looked at him curiously. "Oh! Right! Ha, sometimes my acting is so good, I forget I'm only pretending to be a wizard!"

"How can you forget you're only pretending? You can't do magic if you're a Squib, that would be pretty hard to forget."

"Well…" James looked around and lowered his voice. "Don't tell anyone, but I'm a special kind of Squib. I have magic that works without wands. You can't tell anyone though, because no one else has this power and it's a secret."

Sirius grinned. "Wandless magic. What can you do?"  
"Oh, all kinds of things. Breathe fire like a dragon and fly without a broom and read people's minds and animals' minds and-"

"Read animal minds?" Sirius pointed to James' cat. "So what's he thinking, then?"

"She," James corrected, "says that you look like a pretty cruddy boggart."

"Tell her that you don't make a very convincing squib."

"She says you remind her of marshmallows."

"So says the white fluffy cat!" Sirius said. "If anything, _she's_ the marshmallow!"

"She says that's offensive."

"Do cats actually get offended?"

"When you step on their tails, yea."

Sirius shrugged. "I've never had a cat. Been stuck with Halsmoth most my life," Sirius said, jabing a finger at his owl's cage. "Grumpy old thing, he is. Always pecks my fingers."

The sudden knock on their compartment's door started Halsmoth, and Sirius hastily withdrew his fingers before they could get pecked. An old lady slid aside the door, pushed in a trolley, and said "Food trolley! See anything you like, dears?"

James and Sirius looked at each other, then the trolley, greedily. They both pulled small piles of Knuts from their pockets and examined the cart. Sirius grabbed for Drooble's Best Blowing Gum while James took a bit of several candies. When they reached for a small packet of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans at the same time, Sirius grinned. "Want to split a big one?" James nodded, and they paid the trolley lady, then returned to their seats, already squabbling over Bean Flavors before they had even unwrapped the sweets.

"My dad once got a troll mucus flavored one," James said. "Hasn't had another since."

"My parents don't normally allow sweets in the house," Sirius complained, eyeing the box greedily. James tore open the package. "Says they'll ruin our teeth. But sometimes me or Regulus- that's my younger brother- manage to sneak a chocolate frog or lemon sherbert."

"Actually? That sucks!" James said, pouring a handful of jellybeans onto his palm. "I can't...I can't even imagine life without candy. It'd be like being a Squib in the Wizarding world. Knowing that magic is out there, how cool it can be, but never being able to use it. Dang."

"Yea, well, most of the time Regulus and I sort of forget what we're missing," Sirius said as he examined a cotton-candy blue jellybean suspiciously. "Do they really come in every flavor?"

"Every single one. Pray you don't get dirty diaper. You ready?" James held up his green jellybean.

Sirius nodded. Together, they counted to three and popped the candies into their mouths. Sirius scrunched up his face and wrinkled his nose. "Ah! Yuck!" He stuck out his tongue and scratched off the remaining candy flakes with his fingers. "Ith 'ampoo!"

James laughed. "Gross! I think mine's grass or tree leaves or something. Nothing too terrible."

"Lucky," Sirius said, still cringing from the aftertaste. "That was wretched."

"Want another?" James asked, offering Sirius the box.

Sirius didn't even hesitate. He and James continued to eat until the outside shrubbery and mountains fell away and the Hogwarts castle could be seen in the distance.


End file.
